Canadian Author Suing Judd Apatow for Ripping Off 'Knocked Up'

Rebecca Eckler comments on the lawsuit and the legal process that has been ongoing since Judd was shopping the screenplay around Hollywood in the most recent issue of Macleans magazine.

http://www.macleans.ca/homepage/magazine/article.jsp?content=20070611_106143_106143

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This definitely isn't an original concept, so I can't say I'm THAT surprised by this. I wonder how many 40 year old virginis considered suing Apatow last year!

http://www.hollywoodauteurs.com

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Ugh. I remember when she got pregnant -- I was reading her column online back in the day -- and if Apatow had really ripped off her idea, Knocked Up would have been 90 minutes of the main character bitching about how fat she was getting and how tragic it was that she couldn't wear her favorite boots now that her ankles were swelling. The father of the baby would never even have been mentioned by name, and the baby would be called "the bump" for the entire duration of the film. That's hardly the same story.

Plenty of people get knocked up unintentionally. In fact, studies suggest almost half of pregnancies are unplanned. And, while I haven't read her book, a glance at her blog and my memories of the self-centered and materialistic tone of her column suggest that while the 10,000 view plot of her book may be similar to Knocked Up (getting pregnant while drunk -- wow, it's the most original story ever!), she would never be able to match the genuine sweetness of Apatow's story and characters.

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I read Eckler's book about two years ago before I had even heard about Aptow's movie. (BTW: I'd highly recommend the book.) Aside from the fact that the female character wasn't planning on getting pregnant (and perhaps the Jewish dad, although I don't think that's an important detail for either the book or movie), there's not much similar.

In the book, the main character is already engaged when she becomes pregnant, and the majority of the movie's plot centers around the fact that Ben and Alison (the main characters) don't get to know one another until after they hook up one night.

So while there are very few plot similarities, I do think she has a case. When I saw that there was a movie coming out called Knocked Up, I assumed it was based on the book. When I discovered it wasn't, I thought it was odd that they'd use the same title as book as it could create confusion for people. Although I'm not a lawyer, I think the confusion between the copyrighted works is the legal ground that Eckler has.

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Wow, Becky sounds like every other deluded Hollywood wannabe, thinking she's somehow been screwed over by the system.

I read the Macleans article, and the funniest, most deluded part, is when she accuses Apatow of stealing a joke that she didn't even write herself! Amazing logic there, Becks.

Also, no real screenwriter puts photos or pictures on the cover of their screenplays. I'm sure that was something done by an intern/ assistant in the development department at Universal.

Finally, as much as I liked 40-YOV, I've been avoiding Knocked Up (the film, not the book :), specifically because it sounds like a very trite and cliched premise. Yeah, yeah, I know the reviews have been great, etc., and I'll probably see it now, but still...

Please, Mssrs. Judd Apatow and Bob Universal, do not give this person any money if there is no truth to her story.

- Hobo Joe

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I agree, "women gets pregnant while drunk" is not an original idea to Becky. "well his character is named Allison, and mine was Debbie!" Wow, she's really reallly straining.

Honestly, Adaptow probably didn't name the movie "knocked up", it probably happened at Universial. Also, the Picture of the pacifier on the martini glass was probably a lazy magazine editor googling "knocked up" and getting that image.

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This lawsuit seems to have some merit. She is at a party when she gets "knocked up", she is a reporter, she gets advice from a friend/sister with two kids, the main guy is Canadian, etc. The basic idea is not original, but there are a lot of similar details in the story.

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From an over-zealous rising 2L: She does NOT have a case. See basic IP law course, Copyright - Scenes à faire. Google it. See Ets-Hokin v. Skyy Spirits, Inc., 225 F.3d 1068 (9th Cir. 2000).
If I got that suit I'd R11 her attorney's ass.

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I have read the book, I have seen the movie. Similarities end at woman getting drunk and getting pregnant. Everything else is sheer delusion on Eckler's part, in keeping with her well-documented ego-mania. And the above commenter is right -- the entire book was almost solely concerned with the size of Eckler's ass and her apparent surprise that when a woman gets pregnant, she gains lots of weight. A crap book that shares absolutely nothing with the movie except the very basic -- and age-old -- premise of accidental pregnancy.

One of the bloggers on this blog is fast becoming the authority on the dispute, knocking Eckler's claims down one by one.

www.byekoolaidmoms.blogspot.com

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I also am suing Judd Apatow. I wrote an unpublished novel called "Humans." And I've recently come to find out that Judd's film "Knocked Up" contains characters who are humans. Judd stole this idea from me. Also, in my book, two characters had sex. My lawyer has informed me that this also happens in the movie "Knocked Up." Judd is a thieving bastard.

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That joke that she uses as an example is a joke I heard 15 years ago, Its not exactly the same one, but about the same thing. Kid banging dads head. He might have seen the cover, maybe even read the synopsis, that could have sparked the idea. But come on Judd has proven himself time and time again with his writing, be it for little seen tv-shows to big movie, I just don´t think that he would go and steal from a published book.

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Proving intellectual property theft across different mediums can be difficult to prove, especially if you are astute enough to alter the basic material enough to cast an appropriate amount of doubt.

Even if this is not outright theft, the studio would have been aware through a required title report that a book with a similar name and related story had recently been published in North America. I find it odd and somewhat cynical on the part of the producers involved that they would choose to move ahead using the title 'Knocked Up'.

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